Miriam Brett

Join us at SNP Conference!

Funding Scotland’s Future: Where Next for the Public Finances?

🗓️ Sunday 12th October
🕘 9:15-10:15am
☕️ Food & refreshments!

With:
@shonarobison.bsky.social MSP
David Phillips @theifs.bsky.social
Sara Cowan @swbg.bsky.social
Chair: FES Co-Director @lmacfarlane.bsky.social

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Who owns Scotland's offshore wind assets?

Our new interactive map with @cmmonwealth.bsky.social lets you explore who really owns ScotWind projects – and who stands to benefit

Highlights in 🧵
Explore the map 👉 www.futureeconomy.scot/scotwind

Our new report explores Scotland's attempts to attract private finance to meet net zero targets.

We model funding options for peat restoration + find private finance could increase costs for projects by 48%.

We propose a public-led alternative + policy changes to address non-financial barriers.
👇

Instead of private finance, we need public investment for public goods – plus action on systemic barriers:

📈 Reducing financial uncertainty for landowners
💷 Tax reform
🌱 Fairer land ownership
🦌 Tackling deer numbers
👷‍♀️ Building skills & housing

www.futureeconomy.scot/publications...

🚨 NEW: We’ve been told for years that private finance will fix Scotland’s nature crisis. Our new research shows why it won’t – and sets out a bold public-led alternative.

Highlights in 🧵
Read full report 👉 www.futureeconomy.scot/publications...

'North Sea workers urge government to do more on creating good renewable energy jobs' Rosie Hampton is oil and gas campaigns manager at Friends of the Earth Scotland responds to a new study of over 400 North Sea oil and gas workers…

🚨New survey finds oil & gas workers want decisive action from the UK government, Scottish government and industry to support the transition – but they aren’t getting it.

Here’s what workers want: 🧵

www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/2547...

How are Trump’s tariffs impacting Scotland’s economy? Scotland's exports are defying expectations – for now. But significant risks lie ahead.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇺🇸 NEW: How are Trump’s tariffs impacting Scotland’s economy?

In a new blog, our economist @jujupepe.bsky.social explores the latest data, and finds that Scotland's exports are defying expectations – for now. But significant risks lie ahead.

In a world riven by inequality and devastated by climate + ecological crisis, what would it take for "green industrial policy" to empower the working class in Global North + South, and be truly green?

New @cplusc.bsky.social report by me and Isabel Estevez (1/3) t.co/78sQQe4d1g

Graphic with a photo of a small boat carrying people on open water. Text above reads: “Claim about the costs of asylum support, benefit fraud and tax avoidance is Mostly False.” A fact-check scale is shown beneath, with “Mostly False” highlighted.

Asylum support is being widely discussed again, but some figures circulating online are inaccurate. Ferret Fact Service checked a viral post and found it Mostly False.

Here's why: theferret.scot/claim...

📢 NEW: Scotland faces a stark choice: act boldly to shape the economy, or be shaped by global forces.

Read our second report with @mazzucatom.bsky.social and @iipp-ucl.bsky.social on how to rethink the state around a mission-oriented approach: www.futureeconomy.scot/publications...

No doubt Israel is trembling at the thought of political leaders expressing upset at the latest hospital bombing while providing weapons to the very state targeting hospitals as part of an ongoing genocide.

Next year’s Scottish election must move beyond business-as-usual

Read our new briefing setting out 11 policy priorities for transformative change👇

NEW: Scotland is at a crossroads of crises. The 2026 election must be a turning point towards transformative action.

Our new briefing sets out 11 bold, practical ideas to tackle the country’s biggest challenges.

It’s time to move beyond business-as-usual 👇

Summer 2025 - Bretton Woods Project This edition covers the Jubilee Year 2025 and calls at FfD4 to break the cycle of debt, IMF's Surveillance review, IDA21 package, Argentina, Sri Lanka and the IMF, and more.

Our new #ObserverSummer25 is out now🚀

This edition covers civil society demands of unconditional debt relief in #Jubilee2025, IMF's upcoming surveillance review, World Bank's billions to trillions 'fantasy', Sri Lanka, Argentina & the IMF, #FFD4, and more 🔥👇

tinyurl.com/ObserverSumm...

Missing the bus: Alexander Dennis and Scotland’s industrial decline How public money helped to erode Scotland’s industrial base and offshore jobs abroad

“In an increasingly volatile world, small economies like Scotland face a stark choice: either act boldly to shape markets, or be shaped by global market forces.”

Read the latest blog by @lmacfarlane.bsky.social, analysing Alexander Dennis and the erosion of Scotland’s industrial base.

While other countries implement bold industrial strategies, Scotland is using taxpayer subsidies to erode our industrial base and offshore jobs abroad

My analysis on the loss of 400 jobs at Alexander Dennis 👇

NEW: Alexander Dennis’s decision to halt Scottish manufacturing isn’t just a casualty of market forces

It’s a story of how public money has helped to erode Scotland’s industrial base and offshore jobs abroad

New analysis by @lmacfarlane.bsky.social www.futureeconomy.scot/posts/260-mi...

🚨 Uplift is hiring a Senior Political Adviser (Scotland)! 🚨

📍 Edinburgh, Scotland
💼 Fixed-term, 1 year contract
💰 £49,503 - £54,093
🗓️ Apply by 11pm, Tuesday 30th July

👉 Find out more and apply: cdn.prod.website-files.com/65fb154b5e34...

Nearly a quarter of foster places in England provided by private equity-backed firms Experts raise alarm over ‘commodification’ of vulnerable children as independent fostering agencies make millions in profit

Foster care in England is now a business model.

Private equity firms are cashing in on vulnerable kids while carers earn less than £1ph.

This is what happens when you turn public care into a market.

📊 @sachahilhorst.bsky.social & @sophieflinders.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

This Palestinian boy is comforting his younger siblings after they were injured in an Israeli attack that targeted a displacement shelter in Gaza City.

There has been more outcry at a chant calling for the death of a foreign military committing genocide than at the actual genocide.

Good to know we’ve got our priorities in order eh?

As the genocide we’re complicit in rages on, it’s important to remember who the real criminals are: peaceful protesters and a random assortment of musicians.

MPs will vote on proscribing Palestine Action, alongside violent, far-rights group MMC whose leader has charges for acts of mass violence in US. These two groups are not equivalent to one another, yet MPs will have to vote on the list in full. This is a manipulation of parliamentary process.

🏠 Scotland’s rents have surged by 32 % since May 2020.

This means tenants are paying an average of £245 more per month - in a cost-of-living crisis.

🧵

Treasury 'poised to miss out on £250m in tax receipts from Rosebank oil development' Campaigners have warned the economic case for approving the Rosebank oil field does not stack up

Thanks to absurdly generous tax breaks oil & gas developers receive in the UK, the development of the Rosebank oil field could result in a net LOSS of more than £250 million to the Treasury, while developers Equinor & Ithaca walk away with £1.5 billion in profit.
/1
www.scotsman.com/news/politic...

Zohran Mamdani Is Proposing Green Abundance for the Many The New York City mayoral campaign of Zohran Mamdani is focused on lowering the cost of living. It can serve as a blueprint for progressives seeking to embed climate action in real improvements for wo...

The Mamdani campaign offers a blueprint for the climate left: the path to full decarbonization must run through working class demands for affordability and quality-of-life jacobin.com/2025/06/mamd...

🏠 Completions under the Scottish Government’s Affordable Housing Supply Programme fell by 22% in 2024/25. The number of homes completed was 7,444, a fall of 2,070 compared to the previous financial year, and the lowest level since 2015/16 (exc. the first year of Covid-19) 🧵

Have your wages increased by a third in five years? If so then you’ll have less problem than most tenants will in paying their spiralling rents.

A Scottish government was formed in 2021 promising rent controls. These should have been delivered urgently. They still could be.

NEW: Our analysis of ONS data shows private rents in Scotland have risen 32% since 2020, an average increase of £245/month. This outpaces inflation and previous rent trends. 🧵

Our response to the Scottish Government’s proposed new climate change targets.

The response in full can be found here: www.futureeconomy.scot/press/184-re...